Monday, January 30

A sequel to Breath ofAngel, Karyn Henley continues the Angelaeon Circle series with Eye of the Sword. Last year, I reviewed Breath of Angel for Waterbrook Press and some of you may remember that I didn’t like it. One of the biggest things going against it (for me) was that its target audience seemed to be teenage girls and I had trouble connecting to the story. I had no intention of reading the following books. When I ordered this book, I failed to look beyond the title and the cover, and didn’t realize that this was the sequel. It looked more like a guy-oriented medieval fantasy story. It wasn’t until I received it that I realized the mistake I made. I kept my expectations quite low for this story.

Monday, January 16

Bill Cosby is a funny guy.Ask pretty much anyone and they’ll tell you the same thing.If you don’t believe them, find some episodes of The Cosby Show, or look him up on YouTube.I’ve found him to be able to merge humor and wisdom together in a ways that many couldn’t.So, I eagerly looked forward to reading I Didn’t Ask to Be Born and readying myself to explain to those around me why I was laughing.

I Didn’t Ask to Be Born is a collection of ‘observations’ that Cosby has made.Many of them are stories from his own life, where he always stresses either the unusual nature of it, or in some case the seeming normalcy of life.For example, the chapter “The Missing Pages” find Cosby wondering what happened ‘between’ Bible stories, and “Too Late for Me but Perhaps Not for You is a story of his interaction with his daughter.Interspersed through the book are short, one panel comics, which typically relate to the story being interspersed.

Paul Conroy wakes up in darkness. Stretching out, he finds himself surrounding by wooden boards. He pounds on them, but they do not give. His hands come across a lighter and he discovers that he is in a wooden coffin. As he beats on the wall grains of sand briefly come through the cracks – he is buried. He is a truck driver in Iraq and the last thing he can remember is his convoy being attacked. In the coffin he also finds a pen, a cell phone that only has a half charged battery and wavering signal, a small knife and a few other odds and ends.

Making several phone calls, he is first greeted by answering machines. When he finally connects with a people, he finds himself frustrated by the run around he is given. To top it off, a man calls demanding five million dollars by 9:00pm (it’s a little after 6:00pm in the beginning of the movie) or else he’ll leave Paul to die. Running out of time and air, Paul only has a cell phone to communicate and the hope that he will be found before it is too late.

Saturday, January 7

There are different sorts of negative reactions to films. There’s the absolute feeling of disgust after watching mere minutes of Birdemic, a film so terrible that I cringe when I hear the name. There’s the annoyance with movies such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which have such a love affair with CGI and poor scripts. The worst kind, I have found, is viewing a movie which I have anticipated for weeks, if not months, only to find that not only did the film not reach my expectations, but I didn’t even think was entertaing, or good, in general. Unfortunately, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is probably the most disappointing film I’ve watched in years.

Wednesday, January 4

Working with Ecclesia Bible Society, Thomas Nelson has published, “The Voice,” a new translation of the New Testament. The goal of “The Voice” is to make the story of the Bible readable and engaging, even for those who may be unfamiliar with the texts. I’ll do my best here to highlight what differentiates this from other translations.

1)The formatting was designed to make it readable and understandable. Whenever anyone is speaking, their words are preceded by the speaker’s name, and their dialogue is separated from the previous paragraphs to make it clear when they are speaking. Especially in situations where there are multiple speakers, I found that this makes it easier to follow the flow of a conversation.